Colombo: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday called on Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa during which they discussed bilateral ties and common areas of interests, such as trade and tourism which could benefit both countries.
Imran Khan, who is here on a two-day visit, called on Rajapaksa at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo and held a one-on-one meeting with him.
“Had a productive discussion with #Pakistani PM @ImranKhanPTI this morning. The discussions were mainly focused on common interests such as Trade, Tourism & adoption of technology in Agriculture which both countries could positively leverage on,” President Rajapaksa tweeted after the meeting.
The President and the Prime Minister of Pakistan had a long discussion on bilateral relations. The Pakistani leader said the talks were highly productive, Colombo Page reported.
The two leaders also discussed how to exchange technical knowledge to promote agriculture in the two countries. The two leaders stated that their goal was to uplift the agrarian economy in a way that would provide higher incomes to farmers and subsidized prices to consumers. Khan said that Pakistan’s agricultural economy is very similar to that of Sri Lanka. Pakistan is a major player in Sri Lanka’s export sector.
The President and the Prime Minister of Pakistan also focused on the potential for trade promotion and expansion of investment opportunities between the two countries, the newspaper said. With the control of the COVID pandemic, President Rajapaksa invited the people of Pakistan to visit Sri Lanka. Khan, in an address following his meeting with his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday, said that his maiden visit is aimed at strengthening the bilateral relationship.
Khan said that he was looking forward to enhancing trade ties with Sri Lanka through the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The CPEC, which connects Gwadar Port in Balochistan with China’s Xinjiang province, is the flagship project of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ambitious BRI.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who is accompanying Khan, said Pakistan has offered Sri Lanka a credit line of USD 15 million for defence cooperation, according to media reports from Pakistan. Defence and security cooperation to end the menace of terrorism are of equal importance to both Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Geo News quoted Qureshi as saying.
The two sides also discussed ways to enhance bilateral trade and investment during the visit, Qureshi said. He said that trade between the two countries was below potential even though a free trade agreement existed. Pakistan is also looking at ways to promote tourism, noting that it had several Buddhist sites that would be attractive to Sri Lanka’s citizens, Dawn newspaper reported.